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THE 


Race  Problem  in  the  South. 

♦♦♦♦ 

AN  ADDRESS 

Delivered  Before  the  “Unity  Club,” 

OF 

New  Bedford,  Mass., 

April  27,  1900, 

BY 

REV.  JNO.  W.  STAGG,  D.  D. 

♦♦♦♦ 


CHARLOTTE,  N.  C. 
Presbyterian  Publishing  Company, 
1900. 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2019  with  funding  from 
University  of  North  Carolina  at  Chapel  Hill 


https://archive.org/details/raceprobleminsouOOstag 


THE 

Race  Problem  in  the  South. 

REV.  JNO.  W.  ST  AGO,  D.  D. 


Mr.  President ,  Members  of  the  Unity  Club ,  My  Fellow 
Countrymen ,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen  : 

It  is  my  purpose  to  speak  dispassionately  and  for  truth 
sake  only.  We  have  for  discussion  a  question  of  vast 
importance  to  the  nation,  the  understanding  of  which  is  of 
great  import  to  a  large  section  of  our  country,  and  of  even 
greater  consequence  to  the  negro  race.  I  speak  as  a  friend 
of  the  negro,  provided  you  let  friendship  mean  a  willing¬ 
ness  to  do  for  him  that  which  is  for  his  very  best  interests, 
and  which  would  not  be  good  if  done  for  an  equal  number 
of  white  men  living  anywhere  in  this  union.  The  best 
friend  of  the  negro  is  he  who  recognizes  that  negroes  and 
whites  are  not  equal,  and  it  is  beyond  the  power  of  man  to 
make  them  so.  The  reason  is,  a  negro  is  a  negro  and  a 
white  man  a  white  man.  This  distinction  will  appear 
absurd  to  you  here  in  New  England,  while  it  will  be  satis¬ 
factory  to  any  Southern  man  as  intelligent  and  as  kind  as 
any  citizen  of  your  great  Commonwealth.  The  failure  to 
accept  the  dictum  of  your  Southern  white  brethren  has  led 
to,  what  I  consider,  the  greatest  wrong  ever  perpetrated 
upon  an  inferior  race,  viz  :  the  extension  of  the  franchise 
to  those  helpless  in  the  grasp  of  such  a  power  for  evil. 

I  shall  undertake  to  account  for  the  attitude  of  the  public 
mind  toward  slavery  that  finally  gave  such  a  resultant.  In 
doing  so,  I  shall  necessarily  refer  to  that  which  is  already 
familiar,  but  probably  has  never  been  considered  by  you  in 
relation  of  cause  and  effect.  Beginning  with  the  Missouri 


Compromise  in  i82r,  it  is  interesting  to  note  that  every 
public  question  of  any  proportions  was  directly  aff  cted  in 
all  discussion  and  finally  settled  in  view  of  the  apparently 
disassociated  problem  of  American  Slavery.  From  1821 
to  1854  it  will  be  observed  by  all  students  of  public  events 
that  there  was  no  difference  of  opinion  between  the  North 
and  the  South.  The  question  then,  as  it  has  always  been 
since,  was  handled  with  the  view  of  its  effect  upon  political 
parties  in  determining  their  success  or  failure,  and  never 
with  a  view  of  what  was  best  for  the  country,  the  institu¬ 
tion  of  slavery,  or  the  negro  race.  There  was  not  an 
utterance  made  on  this  subject  nor  an  opinion  held  by  a 
Southern  Statesman,  that  did  not  find  its  parallel  in  a 
Northern  Statesman. 

It  is  significant  that  Mr.  Emerson  remarked  about  Mr. 
Webster,  not  about  a  Southern  Statesman,  “Every  drop  of 
blood  in  this  man’s  veins  has  eyes  that  look  downward.” 
However  many  or  few  names  prior  to  this  time  may  be 
written  down  at  the  North  as  opposed  to  slavery,  as  it 
existed  in  America,  an  equal  number  can  be  written  down 
at  the  South  as  opposed  to  slavery  as  an  institution,  with 
the  difference  that  the  Southern  man  was  more  than  apt  to 
be  a  slave  owner,  and  the  Northern  man  certainly  not  one. 

A  brief  review  may  recall  the  political  situation  : — From 
the  adoption  of  the  Missouri  Compromise  in  February,  1821, 
until  January,  1836,  slavery  excited  no  serious  discussion  in 
congress  In  May,  1833,  Andrew  Jackson  wrote,  “The 
tariff  was  only  the  pretext,  and  disunion  and  a  Southern 
Confederacy  the  real  object.  The  next  pretext  will  be  the 
negro  or  slavery  question.”  The  great  political  parties 
ignored  the  issue,  but  forces  were  at  work  beyond  their 
control.  Lundy  and  Garrison  began  the  agitation  which 
led  to  the  formation  of  anti-slavery  societies.  In  a  conven¬ 
tion  held  at  Baltim  >re  in  1826,  eighty-one  such  societies 
were  represented,  of  which  seventy-three  were  in  slave¬ 
holding  communities.  In  January,  1831,  Garrison  began 
to  publish  “  1  he  Liberator”  in  Boston.  In  November  the 
New  England  Anti-Slavery  Society  was  founded.  In  1833 


the  New  York  Anti-Slavery  Society  was  formed,  and  a 
convention  at  Philadelphia  established  the  American  Anti- 
Slavery  Society-  A  single  sentence  from  the  declaration 
of  principles  adopted  by  the  American  Society  summed  up 
their  position  : — “We  also  maintain  that  there  are  at  the 
present  time  the  highest  obligations  resting  upon  the 
people  of  the  free  states  to  remove  slavery  by  moral  and 
political  action,  as  prescribed  in  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States/’  I  his  was  a  clean  cut  statement  of  the 
issue,  and  it  disclosed  the  fact  that  the  public  mind  was  by 
no  means  prepared  for  its  reception,  and  that  men  at  the 
North  the  equal  in  every  particular  to  those  advocating  it, 
were  bitterly  opposed  to  it.  It  was  the  effort  of  a  few 
private  citizens  with  little  influence  and  small  means,  grap¬ 
pling  with  a  gigantic  evil,  supported  by  the  political,  social, 
and  business  powers  of  the  country.  Many  Southern  men 
were  opposed  to  slavery,  and  acquiesced  in  a  system  which 
it  seemed  impossible  to  change  without  disaster,  political 
and  business,  Edward  Everett  expressed  the  sentiments 
of  manyr  when  he  said  “The  great  relation  of  servitude  in 
some  form  or  other  with  greater  or  less  departure  from  the 
theoretic  equality  of  men,  is  inseparable  from  our  nature; 
it  is  a  condition  of  life  as  well  as  any  other,  to  be  justified 
by  morality,  religion,  and  international  law,”  and  that  it 
was  right  “to  abstain  from  a  discussion  which,  if  not  aban¬ 
doned,  there  is  great  reason  to  fear  will  prove  the  rock  on 
which  the  Union  will  split.”  Garrison  was  dragged  through 
the  streets  of  Boston,  Lovejoy  was  killed  in  Illinois,  and 
anti- slavery  agitation  was  met  by  mob  violence  in  almost 
every  Northern  State.  Southern  Postmasters  took  anti¬ 
slavery  publications  from  the  mails.  The  Postmaster- 
General,  Amos  Kendall,  admitted  this  was  illegal,  but  said 
“By  no  act  or  direction  of  mine,  official  or  private,  would  I 
be  induced  knowingly  to  aid  in  giving  circulation  to  papers 
of  this  description,  directly  or  indirectly.”  From  this 
period  on,  every  public  question  of  proportions  was  affected 
by  slavery  in  its  settlement.  The  struggle  over  the  right 
of  petition  was  caused  by  a  petition  praying  Congress  for 


action  against  slavery.  The  twenty-fourth  Congress  orl 
May  26,  1836,  ruled  that  all  petitions  relating  in  anyway 
to  slavery,  be  laid  on  the  table.  Against  this  rule  Mr. 
Adams  waged  unrelenting  war,  until,  in  the  second  session 
of  the  twenty-eighth  Congress  it  was  abandoned. 

In  1845  the  annexation  of  Texas  was  before  the  Congress 
of  the  United  States  ;  it  was  a  critical  time  and  the  debates 
were  long  and  fierce  ;  the  entire  discussion  turned  on  the 
question  of  slavery.  The  consequences  of  the  admission 
of  Texas  were  far-reaching.  It  divided  the  Whigs  of  Mas¬ 
sachusetts  into  two  parties — sometime^  called  the  “Con¬ 
science  Whigs”  and  the  “Cotton  Whigs.”  In  1846,  the 
contest  between  Mr.  Winthrop  and  Dr.  S  G  Howe  was 
due  to  Winthrop’s  vote  on  the  Mexican  War  bill,  which  in 
turn  was  determined  by  his  views  on  slavery.  September 
29th,  1847,  Daniel  Webster  was  a  candidate  for  the  next 
Presidential  nomination.  In  a  speech  to  the  convention, 
he  took  ground  against  the  extension  of  slavery,  but  was 
averse  to  affirmative  anti-slavery  action.  His  candidacy 
was  seriously  affected  by  this  question,  and  he  failed  of 
nomination.  Early  in  1848  the  Mexican  War  was  ended  by 
a  treaty  which  ceded  to  the  United  States  New  Mexico  and 
Upper  California,  in  return  for  a  payment  of  fifteen  million 
dollars. 

The  question,  “should  this  new  area  be  free  or  slave 
soil,”  had  been  raised  early  in  the  war.  Th  is  was  the  most 
important  question  before  the  country.  Whigs  and  Demo¬ 
crats  alike  recognized  that  a  decided  position  would  alien¬ 
ate  some  of  their  followers.  The  Democratic  Convention 
nominated  Lewis  Cass  on  a  platfoi  m  which  did  not  deal 
with  the  question,  but  denied  the  power  of  Congress  to 
interfere  with  or  control  the  domestic  institutions  of  the 
States.  The  Whig  convention  was  even  more  diplomatic. 
It  nominated  Gen.  Taylor,  at  once,  a  successful  General 
and  a  Southern  slaveholder,  and  adjourned  without  adopt¬ 
ing  any  platform.  This  surrender  of  the  Whig  party  was 
the  immediate  cause  of  revolt,  and  the  purpose  so  to  do 
was  announced  by  Charles  Allen  and  Henry  Wilson  in 


convention  itself.  On  August  9th,  at  Buffal  o.  a  national 
convention  nominated  Martin  Van  Buren  and  Chas.  Francis 
Adams  ;  thus  a  new  party,  known  as  the  “Free  Soil’’  party, 
was  formed,  whose  leading  principle  was  opposition  to  the 
extension  of  slavery,  and  to  its  longer  continuance  wher¬ 
ever  the  national  government  was  responsible  for  it.  This 
stated  the  position  soon  to  be  taken  by  the  Republican 
Party,  and  it  is  not  necessary  to  trace  the  causes  further 
leading  to  the  ormation  of  this  great  political  body.  We 
have  now  the  issue  squarely  before  us. 

In  1845,  in  the  autumn  after  the  annexation  of  Texas,  in 
many  respects  the  greatest  man  the  country  has  ever  pro¬ 
duced  entered  the  arena;  that  man  was  Charles  Sumner. 
Mr.  Sumner  was  sine  cera ,  one  of  whom,  it  might  be  said, 
behold  a  public  man  in  whom  there  is  no  guile.  He  was 
pure  and  honest,  a  scholar  and  a  thinker,  a  servant  of  truth 
and  right,  regardless  of  men  and  parties,  as  deadly  in  his 
invective  against  the  North  as  against  the  South,  whenever 
the  one  or  the  other  struck  at  the  principle  of  his  conten¬ 
tion.  He  was  childlike  but  never  childish.  He  often  spoke 
and  wrote  in  such  way  as  to  alienate  his  warmest  friends 
and  sting  to  the  quick  his  enemies,  and  was  as  surprised  as 
a  child  to  think  that  anyone  could  possibly  be  offended  at 
anything  he  had  said,  so  completely  did  this  truly  great 
man  rise  above  personalities  in  his  attempt  to  conserve 
right.  No  nobler  man  ever  lived  than  Charles  Sumner. 
Nothing  more  to  be  regretted  and  more  unjustifiable  has 
ever  happened  to  any  public  man  than  Mr.  Brooks’  coward¬ 
ly  assault  upon  Mr.  Sumner,  and  the  defense  of  the  act  by 
his  own  people  of  South  Carolina  and  other  Southern  States, 
is  only  to  be  explained  from  the  heated  condition  of  the 
blood,  incident  to  the  incisive  debate  that  had  so  long  agi¬ 
tated  the  public  mind.  It  is  impossible  to  study  this  peiiod 
of  our  national  history,  and  be  surprised  at  anything  that 
happened. 

Mr.  Sumner  defined  his  position  thus:  “It  cannot  be 
doubted  that  the  Constitution  may  be  amended  so  that  it 
shall  cease  to  render  any  sanction  to  slavery.  The  power 


to  amend  carries  with  it  the  previous  right  to  inquire  into 
and  discuss  the  matter  to  be  amended,  and  the  right  ex¬ 
tends  to  all  parts  of  the  country  over  which  the  Constitu¬ 
tion  is  spread — the  North  as  well  as  the  South.” 

This  statement  defines  the  limits  in  which  Mr.  Sumner’s 
action  against  slavery  was  always  confined.  He  is  the  only 
man,  so  far  as  I  know,  who  discussed  slavery  always  in  the 
abstract  up  to  this  time,  and  never  in  the  concrete;  who 
discussed  it  independent  of  all  political  and  business  inter¬ 
ests,  who  spoke  for  right  and  right  alone.  So  powerfully 
did  the  man  impress  himself  upon  the  country,  that  a  con¬ 
vention  in  Kentucky,  composed  of  delegates  from  twenty- 
four  counties,  pronounced  slavery  “injurious  to  the  prosper¬ 
ity  of  the  commonwealth,  inconsistent  with  the  fundamental 
principles  of  free  government,  contrary  to  the  natural  rights 
of  mankind,  and  adverse  to  a  pure  state  of  morals,”  and  de¬ 
clared  “that  it  ought  not  to  be  increased,  and  that  it  ought 
not  to  be  perpetuated  in  the  commonwealth.”  A  Richmond 
newspaper  said,  “two-thirds  of  the  people  of  Virginia  are 
open  and  undisguised  advocates  of  ridding  the  State  of 
slavery.”  This  latter  we  take  to  be  untrue,  but  it  at  least 
shows  that  Mr.  Sumner’s  influence  was  strongly  felt. 

ATTITUDE  OF  REPUBLICAN  PARTY. 

No  party  ever  came  to  life  through  such  birth-throes  as 
the  Republican  party.  With  the  country  on  the  verge  of 
internecine  war  and  a  great  voice  like  Mr.  Sumner’s  lifted 
in  behalf  of  right,  regardless  of  all  consequences,  it  is  not 
to  be  wondered  that  the  party  in  its  early  life  was  guilty  of 
faults  for  which  it  has  not  yet  made  atonement,  and  perhaps 
never  can.  When  we  remember  that  the  party  had  control 
of  the  ship  of  state  when  the  country  had  been  engaged 
for  four  years  in  internecine  strife,  and  that  Lee’s  surrender 
brought  to  a  close  the  greatest  war  of  the  world,  we  expect 
mistakes  to  be  made,  and  in  such  disorder  and  confusion 
misunderstanding  is  certain  to  be,  and  injustice  is  sure  to 
follow.  In  such  times  men  do  not  understand  each  other 
and  measures  are  adopted,  with  pure  motives,  that  are  dis- 


astrous  in  their  carrying  out.  In  such  times  men  do  not 
understand  God.  It  is  looked  upon  as  an  inscrutable  provi¬ 
dence  by  the  South,  as  well  as  the  North,  that  Mr.  Lincoln 
should  have  been  taken  away  when  he  was,  and  in  the 
horrible  manner  of  his  death  I  must  confess  that  the 
inscrutable  providence  ol  the  times  to  me  is,  why  Mr. 
Sumner  was  permitted  so  long  to  direct  the  party  he  had 
been  instrumental  in  organizing.  He  was  too  abstract  a 
man  for  confused  times  and  when  action  was  demanded. 
Such  a  man  knows  no  concession,  and  without  concession 
wise  measures  are  impossible.  During  reconstruction  times 
John  Bright  was  discussing  the  extension  of  the  franchise 
in  the  British  Parliament,  and  Mr.  Sumner’s  mind  took  no 
note  of  the  difficulties  in  the  way  of  applying  this  principle. 
He  said,  “the  work  of  liberation  will  not  be  completed, 
until  the  equal  rights  of  every  person  once  claimed  as  a 
slave,  are  placed  under  the  safe-guard  of  irreversible  guar¬ 
anties.”  Whatever  may  be  said  for  or  against  President 
Johnston,  to  my  mind  he  showed  greater  insight  into  the 
problem,  when  on  the  29th  of  May  he  issued  a  proclama¬ 
tion  of  amnesty,  and  another  providing  for  reconstruction 
in  North  Carolina,  “by  a  convention  to  be  chosen  only  by 
persons  qualified  to  vote  before  secession,”  thus  excluding 
all  negroes  from  the  electorate.  Mr  Johnston  had  split 
rails  with  negroes,  and  as  we  say  down  South,  “He  sho’did 
understand  a  nigger.”  During  the  period  of  reconstruction 
men  were  controlled  by  passion  and  not  directed  by  reason. 
That  time  to  the  South  was  Hell  come  upon  the  earth  No 
people,  since  the  day  that  man  was  created  upon  the  earth, 
ever  endured  such  outrages  and  indignities,  and  had  they 
not  been  starved  out  during  four  years  of  lighting,  th  ey 
would  have  taken  up  arms  after  ’65,  in  an  attempt  to  throw 
off  the  yoke  of  the  conquerer.  In  illustration  of  the  insan¬ 
ity  of  the  time,  I  call  attention  to  the  utterance  of  a  man 
who  was  regarded  before  his  death  a^  the  greatest  living 
preacher.  Phillips  Biooks,  on  the  Sunday  Mr.  Lincoln’s 
body  lay  in  state  in  the  city  of  Phil  idelphia,  spoke  as 
follows:  “Abraham  Lincoln  was  the  type-man  of  the  coun- 


try,  but  not  of  the  whole  country.  This  character  which 
we  have  been  trying  to  describe,  was  the  character  of  an 
American  under  the  discipline  of  freedom  There  was 
another  American  character  which  had  been  developed 
under  the  influence  of  slavery.  There  was  no  one  Ameri¬ 
can  character  embracing  the  land,  there  were  two  charac¬ 
ters,  with  impulses  of  irrepressible  and  deadly  conflict. 
This  citizen  whom  we  have  been  honoring  and  praising 
represented  one  The  whole  great  scheme  with  which  he 
was  ultimately  brou  gilt  in  conflict,  and  which  has  finally 
killed  him,  represented  the  other.  Besides  this  nature, 
true  and  fresh  and  new,  there  was  another  nature,  false  and 
effete  and  old.  The  one  nature  found  itself  in  a  new  world, 
and  set  itself  to  discover  the  new  ways  for  the  new  duties 
that  were  given  it.  The  other  nature,  full  of  the  false  pride 
of  blood,  set  itself  to  reproduce  in  the  new  world  the  insti¬ 
tutions  and  the  spirit  of  the  old,  to  build  anew  the  structure 
of  the  feudalism  which  had  been  corrupt  in  its  own  day,  and 
which  had  been  left  far  behind  by  the  advancing  conscience 
and  needs  of  the  progressing  race.”  Only  when  reason  is 
dethroned  by  passion  can  good  men  speak  words  so  derog¬ 
atory  to  a  great  section  of  the  country,  and  which  have 
been  refuted  every  time  the  stars  and  stripes  have  been 
unfurled,  and  men  have  been  called  to  their  defence.  The 
tramp  of  soldiers  has  been  heard  from  the  Rio  Grande  and 
the  Gulf,  and  that  tramp  will  be  heard  so  long  as  the 
Republic  stands. 

SLAVERY  AND  ITS  EFFECTS  ON  RIGHTS.  THE  FRANCHISE 

AND  ITS  EFFECTS  ON  RIGHTS. 

November  the  4th,  1845,  ,n  Boston,  Mr.  Sumner  said  : 
“The  Government  and  Independence  of  the  United  States 
are  founded  on  the  adamantine  truth  of  Equal  Rights 
and  the  Brotherhood  of  all  men,  declared  on  the  4th  of 
July,  1776,  a  truth  receiving  new  and  constant  recognition 
in  the  progress  of  time,  and  which  is  the  great  lesson  from 
our  country  to  the  world.”  We  of  the  South  concur  in 
every  word  of  this  attempt  to  define  our  position,  as  a 


nation,  before  the  world  ;  and  yet  the  greater  portion  of 
the  meaning  in  Mr.  Sumner’s  mind  is  not  in  ours,  showing 
at  least,  that  the  question  of  rights  is  debatable,  and  the 
meaning  of  the  language  of  the  Constitution  is  by  no  means 
self  evident. 

We  hold  that  slavery  involves  right  in  the  constitutional 
sense,  and  that  the  franchise  does  not  involve  right,  but 
involves  the  question  of  expediency.  Up  to  1835  in  North 
Carolina  free  negroes  exercised  the  right  of  the  franchise. 
Gov.  Graham  was  elected,  the  first  time  he  entered  public 
life,  by  one  vote,  and  that  vote  was  cas^  by  a  free  negro. 
The  agitation  of  the  public  mind  in  1835  was  such  that  it 
was  expedient  to  debar  the  free  Negro  from  the  privilege  of 
voting,  thus  early  was  this  the  doctrine  of  sections  of  the 
South. 

SLAVERY. 

I  have  no  word  too  strong  to  express  my  condemnation 
of  slavery  as  an  institution  Its  existence  in  the  South  was 
due  to  a  sequence  in  cause  over  which  the  country  appar¬ 
ently  had  no  control  after  once  the  iniquity  of  slave  trading 
had  been  touched  by  the  nation.  You  at  the  North  are.  if 
anything,  more  to  blame  for  its  existence  in  America  than 
we  at  the  South.  Of  this  condition  of  slavery  I  have  no 
word  of  condemnation.  It  v/as  the  best  form  of  it  that  ever 
existed  since  Adam  was  created.  But  the  defence  of 
slavery,  as  an  institution,  such  as  was  given  to  it  by  many 
leading  statesmen  and  pulpiteers  of  the  South,  may  be  set 
aside  as  absurd  It  is  useless  to  deny  that  slavery  was 
defended  as  a  divine  right.  Good  men  taught  it.  I  was 
taught  it  by  a  man  as  pure  as  ever  occupied  a  chair  in  an 
institution  for  the  education  of  youth.  When  I  remembered 
what  the  people  of  the  South  passed  through  during  the 
war  and  during  the  period  of  reconstruction  at  your  hands, 

I  understood  how  prejudice  and  hatred  blinded  to  the  truth. 
It  would  have  been  strange  if  the  teaching  had  been  other¬ 
wise.  Nevertheless  slavery  in  any  form,  anywhere  on  the 
face  of  the  earth,  is  damnable.  It  is  a  wrong  against  God 
and  man.  I  have  never  seen  an  argument  in  its  justifica- 


tion  that  would  not  at  the  same  time  justify  those  things 
that  by  common  consent  are  damnable.  The  Rible  gives 
a  history  of  slavery  and  polygamy,  and  the  one  as  well  as 
the  other,  can  be  justified  with  the  arguments  usually 
advanced  for  slavery.  When  the  mind  and  body  of  a 
human  being  is  controlled  by  a  master,  the  question  of 
right  is  involved,  and  no  penalty  is  too  great  to  pay  for 
the  settlement  of  where  right  begins  and  ends.  The  civil 
war  was  horrible,  it  saturated  the  land  with  blood,  but  if  it 
helped  in  settling  this  question  it  was  cheap. 

THE  GREATEST  BLUNDER  OF  THE  NATION. 

It  could  hardly  be  expected  that  a  political  party,  in 
power  at  such  a  time  as  that  immediately  preceding  and 
following  the  war,  should  not  make  blunders  ;  but  to  my 
mind  the  most  egregious  wrong  ever  perpetrated  in  the  his¬ 
tory  of  the  Republic,  was  when  the  Constitution  was  so 
amended  as  to  give  equality  of  suffrage  to  the  negro  with 
the  white  race  of  this  Union.  The  folly  of  this  part  of  our 
history  is  being  written  now.  It  was  a  gross  wrong  to  the 
white  race  ;  it  was  a  greater  wrong  to  the  negro  race. 

A  scrutiny  of  the  condition  of  affairs  will  make  clear  the 
wrong  to  the  Southern  white.  I  wish  to  set  this  forth  by 
analogy.  I  prefer  to  take  my  incidents  trom  the  New  Tes¬ 
tament,  that  f  may  give  to  the  argument  the  force  of  being 
Christian.  One  of  the  noted  men  whom  the  Apostle  Paul 
persuaded  to  embrace  Christianity,  was  Philemon.  This 
man  was  a  slave-holder,  and  possessed  a  slave  named 
Onesimus.  Philemon  seems  to  have  recognized,  even  for 
slaves,  a  right  of  personal  freedom  in  the  highest  sphere, 
and  he  did  not  force  his  slaves  to  become  converts  to  Chris¬ 
tianity,  but,  as  was  the  manner  of  many  slave-holders  in 
the  South,  gave  his  slaves  the  opportunity  of  having  the 
arguments  for  the  new  faith  presented.  Among  the  hear¬ 
ers  of  the  great  apostle  was  Onesimus.  He  heard  Paul’s 
exhortation,  in  which  he  called  upon  his  auditors  to  stand 
fast  in  that  liberty  wherewith  Christ  had  made  them  free. 
The  theory  of  Christian  liberty  was  as  yet  too  subtle  for 


him,  but  the  fact  was  patent  and  inspiring.  Here  was  a 
religion  which  asserted  in  the  most  unqualified  terms  the 
equality  of  all  men  before  God  ;  which  declared  in  the 
most  uncompromising  accents  that  with  him  there  was  no 
respect  of  persons  ;  which  maintained  that  in  his  sight  all 
distinction  was  abolished  between  Jew  and  Gentile,  Greek 
and  barbarian,  freeman  and  '  lave.  The  two  ideas  of  bond¬ 
age  and  freedom  took  possession  of  him,  heart  and  brain, 
and  Philemon  became  to  him  as  unbearable  as  if  he  had 
been  the  object  of  despotic  tyranny.  One  day  Paul  was 
surprised,  near  the  conclusion  of  his  first  Roman  period,  by 
a  visit  from  Onesimus,  with  the  information  that  he  was  a 
run-a-way  slave,  and  that  he  had  left  his  master  because  of 
the  preaching  of  the  great  Apostle.  This  incident  is  of 
greater  significance  than  many  suppose.  Paul  had  now  to 
give  the  Christian  answer,  for  the  world,  to  Onesimus,  on 
slavery,  and  at  the  same  time  give  direction  to  the  conduct 
of  a  man  who  was  wronged  by  an  institution  without  divine 
sanction,  and  un-Christian.  Whether  Paul  understood, 
or  did  not  understand,  the  tremendous  issues  dependent 
upon  his  answers  to  Onesimus,  the  direction  he  gave  the 
matter  is  worthy  of  all  imitation  He  unhesitatingly 
taught  Onesimus  that  slavery  was  wrong  and  that  his  right 
was  to  be  free  from  Philemon,  but  that  there  were  other 
considerations  which  should  determine  the  exercise  of  that 
right.  He  taught  Onesimus  that  the  new  doctrine  was  not 
designed  to  reduce  men  to  one  level,  but  to  establish  a  new 
social  grade.  He  knew  well  that,  if  society  were  made  a 
plain  to-day,  it  would  be  studded  again  with  mountains 
to-morrow.  He  knew  well  that,  however  equal  men  might 
be  in  rights,  they  were,  and  always  would  be  very  une¬ 
qual  in  merits. 

The  condition  confronted  was  this:  “Christianity  had  a 
right  to  proclaim  the  freedom  of  man  as  man.  Nothing 
was  simpler  than  to  make  such  a  proclamation.  Paul  had 
only  to  connive  at  the  flight  of  Onesimus  and  to  indorse 
the  act  by  his  own  imprimatur  ;  it  would  have  been  a 
signal  to  the  whole  slave  population  of  the  world  that  the 


watch  word  of  the  new  religion  was  emancipation  from 
servile  bonds.  What  would  have  been  the  effect  of  such  a 
signal  ?  Doubtless  it  would  have  instantaneously  added  to 
the  numerical  strength  of  Christianity  ;  the  kingdom  of 
heaven  would  immediately  have  been  taken  by  violence, 
and  so  would  the  kingdoms  of  earth.  It  is  impossible  to 
conceive  a  more  perfect  picture  of  anarchy  than  would 
have  been  created  bv  a  sudden  and  successful  insurrection 

j 

of  the  slave  population.  The  numerical  proportion  of  the 
bound  to  the  unbound  in  the  Roman  Empire  is  a  matter  of 
dispute  ;  probably  the  bond  outnumbered  the  free.  Figure 
anything  approaching  to  such  a  proportion,  and  then  to  the 
quantity  add  the  quality.  Consider  that  the  slave  popula¬ 
tion  represented  at  its  worst  that  state  which  we  designate 
by  the  name  of  Paganism— a  name  which  embraces  as  its 
leading  characteristic  the  predominance  of  the  sensuous 
over  the  spiritual.  It  was  Paganism  without  its  restraints 
and  without  its  refinements.  What  would  have  been  the 
effect  of  the  emancipation  of  these  millions — the  emanci¬ 
pation  of  an  un-Christianized,  unhumanized  horde  impelled 
by  the  fanaticism  of  a  new  watch -word,  accomplished  in  a 
moment  of  time,  and  achieved  by  a  stroke  of  violence  ? 
Could  it  have  had  anv  other  result  than  one — the  transfer- 
mation  of  order  into  anarchy,  the  uprooting  of  that  line  of 
civilization  on  which  Christianity  itself  had  begun  to  move  ? 

I  have  taken  the  picture  ready  made.  With  slight  varia¬ 
tion  it  descr  bes  the  condition  of  the  South.  What  the 
Republican  party  did,  the  Apostle  Paul  could  conceive  of 
no  condition  of  servitude  as  justifying.  By  one  act  it  lifted 
four  millions  of  slaves  to  equal  rights  with  their  white  supe¬ 
riors,  and  four  millions  in  whom  the  sensuous  predominates 
over  all  other  qualities  of  heart  or  head.  The  only  safe¬ 
guard  for  the  Southern  white,  was  the  kindness  which  the 
negro  had  received  at  his  hands  during  all  the  history  of 
Southern  slavery  ;  and  if  the  malicious  lie  of  general 
cruelty,  on  the  part  of  Southern  slave-holders,  can  find 
refutation  nowhere  else,  let  it  find  it  here.  When  a  great 
political  party  turned  loose  four  million  slaves  with  author- 


ity  and  backed  by  power,  to  perform  their  will,  they 
had  to  be  led  by  corrupt  white  men,  and  driven  by  corrupt 
politicians  to  do  even  as  badly  as  they  did.  be  it  said  here 
that  the  kindness  of  the  negro  race  during  the  war,  when 
every  gun  was  at  the  front,  and  women  and  children  unpro¬ 
tected  on  the  farm,  is  without  parallel  in  the  history  of  man. 


THE  EFFECT  ON  THE  NEGRO  RACE. 


Nothing  ever  done  by  the  most  malignant  enemy  of  the 
negro  has  been  as  detrimental  as  the  amendment  of  the 
Constitution,  by  which  the  right  of  a  vote  was  given  him. 
It  was  like  putting  a  stick  in  his  hands,  and  then  compel¬ 
ling  him  to  break  his  own  back  with  it.  The  enormous 
power  of  the  franchise  in  the  hands  of  so  many  newly  made 
citizens,  was  at  once  taken  advantage  of  by  unscrupulous 
white  men,  both  North  and  South,  and  from  that  day  to 
this  the  Negro  vote  has  been  a  commodity  on  the  political 
market,  to  be  bought  and  sold  for  every  manner  and  kind 
of  corruption.  For  a  long  while,  at  least,  it  destroyed  all 
hope  in  the  South  of  accomplishing  anything  in  the  way  of 
good  for  that  section.  It  is  not  necessary  that  I  should 
undertake  to  tell  the  manner  of  the  doing.  Thomas  Nel¬ 
son  Page,  in  “Red  Rock,”  has  given  the  picture  of  an 
intelligent  Northern  man  amid  the  scenes  as  they  were 
enacted,  and  while  the  story  is  fiction,  it  is  fiction  founded 
on  fact,  and  the  conclusion  of  this  intelligent  Northern 
character  as  to  the  wrong  of  giving  the  power  of  suffrage  to 
the  negro  race,  is  more  than  confirmed,  under  one  of  the 
modern  wonders  of  the  world — the  speed  of  communication 
with  all  parts  of  the  earth — when  so  many  right  thinking 
and  just  men,  of  the  north,  have  seen  with  their  own  eyes, 
and  heard  with  their  own  ears,  things  they  once  would  not 
believe  on  the  highest  testimony.  The  period  immediately 
following  the  war  was  fraught  with  influences  that  as  com¬ 
pletely  changed  the  negro  as  if  he  had  been  put  to  school. 
The  carpet-bag  regime  was  indeed  a  school  of  training  for 
outrage,  and  the  negro  succumbed  to  this  influence.  From 
a  long  term  of  servitude  he  had  learned  to  admire  author- 


ity,  pomp,  and  wealth.  The  war  destroyed  pomp  and 
wealth.  His  former  master  was  attired  in  rags,  and  his 
former  mistress  had  laid  aside  her  diamonds.  The  Federal 
government  had  destroyed  the  white  man’s  authority  by 
giving  equal  rights  of  suffrage  to  the  negro.  When  he  was 
told  that  he  was  as  good  as  the  white  man,  he  could,  at 
least,  see  that  there  was  not  the  difference  that  once  existed. 
Under  this  tutelage  he  was  changed  ;  his  kindness  changed 
to  hate,  his  respect  to  contempt,  his  reverence  to  insult,  his 
temperance  to  intemperance,  his  self  control  to  rape.  In  a 
word,  the  Negro  was  brutalized.  The  result  was  that  the 
whites  organized  into  bands  of  various  characters  and 
names,  and  many  negroes  were  killed.  The  result  of  this 
has  been  that  to  the  present  time  the  papers  of  the  country 
have  kept  up  crimination  and  recrimination.  And  I  believe 
a  paper  called  the  Independent ,  published  in  New  York, 
still  keeps  it  up  in  the  ^ame  old  way,  refusing  to  believe 
that  things  have  changed  at  all. 

I  wish  to  show  how  thoroughly  this  school  of  out-laws 
trained  the  negroes.  There  is  in  Alabama  a  negro  named 
Booker  Washington  at  the  head  of  an  industrial  school  for 
the  training  of  negroes.  On  February  the  1 2th,  1899,  he 
was  invited  by  the  Union  League  Club  of  Philadelphia,  in 
commemoration  of  the  birth  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  to  deliver 
an  address,  in  which  he  said:  “My  first  acquaintance  with 
our  hero  and  benefactor  is  this:  night  after  night,  before 
the  dawn  of  day,  on  an  old  slave  plantation  in  Virginia,  I 
recall  the  form  of  my  sainted  mother,  bending  over  a  batch 
of  rags  that  enveloped  my  body,  on  a  dirt  floor,  breathing 
a  fervent  prayer  to  Heaven  that  “Massa  Lincoln  might  suc¬ 
ceed  ”  If  this  was  intended  to  give  a  picture  of  slave  life  in 
Virginia,  it  is  very  misleading.  But  what  I  apprehend 
Booker  Washington  wished  to  do  was  to  express  the  opini¬ 
on  he  thought  his  Northern  friends  had  in  their  minds,  and 
that  they  rather  expected  he  would  say  something  deroga¬ 
tory  of  slavery.  Booker  Washington  is  a  great  negro  but 
not  a  great  man,  and  he  and  all  other  negroes  I  have  seen 
show  this  weakness  when  circumstances  give  the  opportu- 


nitv  of  currying  favor  with  their  friends  by  obtaining  sym¬ 
pathy  through  fiction. 

The  reason  why  the  intelligant  people  of  the  North  failed 
to  understand  the  situation  better,  was  due  in  no  small  part 
to  “Uncle  Tom’s  Cabin.”  This  book  has  had  a  sale  larger 
than  all  other  books,  with,  perhaps,  the  two  exceptions  of 
“Pilgrim’s  Progress”  and  the  Bible.  In  view  of  this,  its 
great  influence  is  understood.  1  he  plot  of  the  book  was 
conceived  at  Ripley,  Ohio,  in  the  house  of  a  Presbyterian 
minister  named  Rankin.  Mr.  Rankin’s  house  occupied  the 
summit  of  the  highest  hill  in  that  section  on  the  banks  of 
the  Ohio  River.  It  was  the  point  known  as  the  “Under¬ 
ground  Railroad,”  where  runaway  slaves  crossed  on  their 
way  North  and  to  Canada.  Whatever  cruelty  attached  to 
the  slave  system,  she  saw  in  its  most  exaggerated  form. 

Slave-dealers  and  those  hunting  slaves  for  the  reward  of 
their  return  were  here.  I  suspect  they  were  horribly  treated. 
Mr.  Rankin  was  recognized  as  an  apostle  to  freedom,  and 
I  believe  has  erected  to  him  in  the  little  cemetery  at  Rip¬ 
ley,  a  monument  with  an  inscription  that  states  as  much. 
Under  these  conditions,  and  a  fertile  imagination  fired  by 
prejudice,  “Uncle  Tom’s  Cabin”  was  a  natural  product; 
but  when  sent  to  the  world  as  a  correct  exposition  of  the 
condition  of  slaveiy  as  it  existed  in  the  South,  it  was  an 
enormous  misrepresentation. 

THE  AMENDMENT. 

After  the  endurance  of  outrage  and  insolence,  from  the 
negro  race,  for  thirty-five  years,  the  white  people  of  the 
South  have  undertaken  to  deal  with  the  question.  Many 
people  living  at  remote  distances  from  the  South  are  anxious 
to  understand  what  is  proposed,  under  the  amendments  to 
the  State  Constitutions;  such,  for  instance,  as  is  proposed  to 
\  be  voted  on,  in  August  next,  in  the  State  of  North  Carolina. 

I  will  say  that  the  wise  men  in  the  South  will  have  the 
negro’s  good  at  heart,  as  well  as  their  own,  in  whatever 
measure  may  be  finally  decided  upon.  I  am  convinced  that 
some  action  must  be  speedily  taken — for  the  good  of  the 


negro  race.  The  best  action  would  be  tor  the  nation  to 
take  from  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  the  15th 
15th  amendment,  stating  it  was  put  there  in  time  of 
passion  and  under  the  pressure  of  misguided  enthusiasm. 
By  this  one  act  all  friction  between  the  white  and  negro 
races  would  in  time  be  removed.  It  would  convince  the 
negro  that  his  outrages  would  not  be  tolerated  by  the  gov¬ 
ernment,  and  restore  somewhat  of  the  feeling  of  the 
ante-bellum  negro  who  knew  there  was  no  escape  from  his 
wrong  doing.  This  race  cannot  be  controlled  anywhere  on 
the  earth  without  some  such  fear  of  the  consequences  of  its 
acts.  If  this  cannot  be  accomplished,  then  the  States  must 
do  the  best  they  can. 

THE  REMEDY  PROPOSED. 

Before  another  generation  of  negroes  is  allowed  to  arise, 
worse,  as  we  must  see  than  the  present,  the  people  of  the 
South  must  act.  First  they  must  remove  the  negro  from 
politics — not,  perhaps,  forever — but  certainly  until  the 
proper  time.  When  such  distant  and  alien  advisers  as  the 
Philadelphia  Inquirer  can  see  what  the  following  statement 
indicates,  it  is  blindness  that  prevents  the  man  on  ihe 
ground  from  seeing.  That  journal,  in  a  recent  editorial 
(February  6th,  1900),  says:  “We  have  made  many  mistakes 
during  the  course  of  the  century  in  the  United  States. 
What  is  called  the  ‘Southern  question’  revolves  almost  ex¬ 
clusively  around  the  ballot  box.  The  freedom  of  the  ballot 
box  is  altogether  too  free.”  To  deprive  the  ignorant  negro 
of  the  political  liberty,  which  he  now  uses  for  license,  will, 
by  the  immediate  change  it  will  bring  in  his  relation  to  the 
white  man,  soon  indemnify  him  for  the  seeming  loss.  It 
will,  let  us  hope,  soon  bring  again  the  old  relations  in  feel¬ 
ing  that  existed  between  the  races  at  the  close  of  the  war. 
It  the  change  is  long  delayed,  however,  it  will  come  too 
late;  the  young  whites  of  the  South,  more  familiar  with  the 
“new  issue”  than  the  old,  have  as  we  have  seen  but  little 
of  that  sympathetic  feeling  for  the  race  that  their  fathers 
had.  The  negro  is  to  them  a  political  menace  only;  they 


have  no  cause  to  love  him  and  in  spite  of  their  traditions 
they  are  beginning-  to  hate  him.  It  were  better  for  botli 
races  that  this  should  be  changed,  at  the  first  possible 
moment. 

Some  one  will  say,  “what  about  the  negro’s  right  to 
vote.”  The  answer  is  that  the  question  of  right  is  not  in¬ 
volved.  It  isn’t  anybody’s  right  to  vote.  I  accept  Herbert 
Spencer’s  doctrine  ol  rights.  Voting,  in  this  country,  is  a 
question  of  expedie  icy  for  whites  as  well  as  blacks.  It 
may  not  be  expedient  for  you  here  in  Massachusetts  to 
vote;  then  you  should  not  vote.  Once  upon  a  time  you 
thought  it  was  not  expedient  for  a  large  number  of  the  best 
citizens  of  this  country  not  to  vote,  and  you  said  so,  and 
they  did  not  vote.  These  were  also  South  of  the  Mason’s 
and  Dixon’s  line.  We  say,  on  the  ground  of  expediency, 
that  the  negro,  in  North  Carolina,  ought  not  to  vote. 

My  fellow  men,  here  in  cold  New  England,  it  is  expedi¬ 
ent  that  he  should  not.  It  will  be  the  beginning  of  great 
things  for  the  negro,  and  without  which  redemption  to 
good  citizenship  is  impossible.  Whatever  else  the  Spanish- 
American  war  failed  to  accomplish,  it  did  accomplish  this: 
it  destroyed  all  misgiving  in  our  own  minds,  and  convinced 
the  world  that  this  country  is  one  We  are  a  union,  and 
whenever  we  are  attacked,  whether  here  on  this  New  Eng¬ 
land  coast,  or  the  Mexican  border,  we  are  a  union  against 
the  world.  Abraham  Lincoln  is  reported  to  have  intimated 
to  the  South,  “Write  the  word  Union,  and  you  may  ask  for 
what  you  will,  and  it  shall  be  granted.”  We  write  the  word 
“Union,”  as  we  have  written  it  in  blood,  and  our  request  is 
that  you  let  us  deal  with  the  race  problem  in  the  South. 
We  oi  the  South  understand  the  negro.  We  love  him.  He 
is  the  best  friend  on  earth  when  uncorrupted.  By  this 
amendment  we  are  onlyr  trying  to  do  what  the  wisest  and 
best  men  in  the  South  besought  you  to  do  in  1 86 1  The 
Virginia  Secession  Convention  of  that  yrear,  in  Section  7,  of 
Article  XIII,  of  its  proceedings  prayed,  “The  elective 
franchise  and  the  right  to  hold  office,  whether  Federal  or 
Territorial,  shall  not  be  exercised  by  persons  who  are  of 


the  African  race.”  The  condition  of  affairs  in  Wilmington, 
N.  C  ,  last  year,  was  due  to  a  failure  in  apprehending  this 
restriction  proposed  to  be  put  upon  the  negro  race,  and  it 
may  serve  as  illustration  of  the  cause  of  riots  elsewhere, 
and  be  prophetic  of  worse  things  in  store  for  the  negro, 
unless  measures  are  adopted  to  hedge  him  about  and  pro¬ 
tect  him.  This  Anglo-Saxon  race  is  long  suffering,  but  it 
is  the  fiercest  race  on  earth,  and  when  the  day  of  retribu¬ 
tion  comes,  harrowing  tales  will  be  told.  Disfranchisement 
is  the  remedy,  for  things  will  not  continue  always  as  they 
now  are.  I  take  this  occasion  to  state  that  I  have  little 
patience  with  the  harangues  of  politicians  recently  made  in 
North  Carolina  and  elsewhere  in  the  South.  They  are  un¬ 
just  to  the  negro,  and  are  not  in  accord  with  the  thought 
of  the  best  and  wisest  white  men  of  that  section.  The 
question  has  merits,  which,  when  presented  in  a  dispassion¬ 
ate  and  dignified  manner,  will  command  a  hearing,  even 
from  the  negroes  themselves,  many  of  whom  have  said, 
“The  measure  is  just;  we  do  not  need  the  franchise;  we 
need  that  help  that  will  fit  us  for  its  exercise.”  I  have  no 
sympathy  for  the  man  who  needlessly  abuses  the  negro. 
Every  wrong  the  negro  has  perpetrated  in  the  South  is  due 
to  the  short-sightedness  of  his  supposed  white  friend.  His 
record  during  slavery  proves  this.  A  correctly  taught 
negro  will  take  charge  of  the  virtue  and  the  wealth  of  your 
family,  and  neither  will  be  molested.  Ten  thousand  South¬ 
ern  white  men  will  testify  to  the  truth  of  this  statement. 
The  Spanish-American  war  incidentally  emphasizes  the 
wisdom  of  the  Virginia  resolution  in  1 86 1  in  petitioning  that 
no  member  of  the  African  race  be  allowed  to  hold  office. 
The  incident  of  a  negro  officer  in  the  volunteer  army  of  the 
late  war,  reminding  a  private  white  soldier  of  “the  duty  of 
inferiors  to  salute  their  superiors,”  to  which  the  white  soldier 
replied,  “All  coons  look  alike  to  me,”  while  humorous,  is 
significant.  1  he  significance  is  deepened  when  we  remem¬ 
ber  that  the  reply  was  not  made  by  a  Southern  man.  It 
means  that  a  negro  cannot  be  put  in  authority  over  a  white 
man  anywhere  in  these  United  States,  and  the  negro’s  life 


be  safe.  In  the  regular  army,  whatever  good  word  may  be 
said  for  the  negro  is  due  to  the  fact  that  in  the  regular 
array  the  negro  is  practically  in  slavery,  and  when  managed 
properly,  his  equal  for  service  is  not  easily  found.  But  in 
the  volunteer  army,  the  Northern  white  volunteer  saw  the 
negro  in  all  his  insolence,  and  the  most  insolent  being  on 
earth  is  a  negro  in  the  paraphernalia  of  office,  without  the 
instincts  of  a  gentleman  or  the  qualifications  of  an  officer. 
These  Northern  white  volunteers  have  done  more  than  all 
the  newspapers  published  since  the  war  in  giving  a  correct 
estimate  of  the  negro  as  a  race,  and  they  have  taken  this 
information  to  every  State  of  the  Union.  The  horrible 
crimes  committed  in  the  South  in  the  way  of  killing  innocent 
government  officers,  is  due  to  feeling  kindled  by  negro  in¬ 
solence  at  first,  and  has  been  fed  until  the  drapery  of  office 
will  render  obnoxious  the  best  negro  in  the  land  to  many 
of  the  lower  class  of  whites.  I  frankly  admit  that  this  is 
unjust ;  at  the  same  time,  I  wish  to  declare  that  this  condi¬ 
tion  is  due  to  lack  of  judgment  on  the  part  of  the  govern¬ 
ment,  in  trying  to  force  an  inferior  race  to  the  place  of  rule 
over  a  superior  race,  when  it  is  unfitted  by  inheritance  and 
training,  and  lacking  in  merit  for  such  position  When  we 
remember  the  tremendous  effort  to  arouse  this  country 
against  slavery,  and  recollect  that  slavery  went  down  in 
one  of  the  bloodiest  wars  of  the  world,  it  is  not  strange  that 
the  North  should  have  erroneous  views  of  the  negro  race, 
and  exaggerated  ideas  of  his  sufferings  and  wrongs,  nor  is 
it  even  surprising  that  the  North  glorified  and  deified  the 
negro:  but  the  time  for  visions  is  past,  and  the  time  of 
soberness  is  at  hand.  With  purity  of  heart,  sincerity  of  pur¬ 
pose,  and  soundness  of  mind,  the  South  says  the  wrong  to 
the  white  and  the  wrong  to  the  negro  will  never  be  righted 
until  the  negro  is  relieved  of  the  burden  of  responsibilities 
for  which,  as  a  race,  he  is  unqualified.  I  could  name  sever¬ 
al  hundred  negroes,  in  every  way  as  well  qualified  for  office 
and  citizenship  as  the  late  Fred.  Douglas,  who,  if  they  should 
ask  my  opinion  of  the  attitude  they  should  assume  in  this  hour 
of  the  negro  race’s  life,  I  should  unhesitatingly  say,  “Re- 


nounce  your  own  right  of  emancipation  for  the  sake  of  your 
race,  which  is  unripe  for  emancipation.” 

THE  CONDITION  NOW. 

Under  present  conditions  1  wish  to  discuss,  first,  lynch¬ 
ing.  I  ask  you  to  consider  carefully  these  words  from  Hon. 
L.  E  Bleckley,  Chief  Justice  of  Georgia:  “A  fundamental 
truth  which  certainly  exists,  and  which  ought  to  be  recog¬ 
nized  by  all  men  everywhere,  is  that,  according  to  right 
reason  and  just  views  of  civilization,  government  and  morals, 
provocation  has  nothing  whatever  to  do  with  the  right  or 
wrong  of  lynching  negroes.  No  kind  or  degree  of  provo¬ 
cation  will  justify  or  even  mitigate  it.  Lynching  is  barbar 
ic,  anarchic  and  wrong  per  se.” 

I  ask  you  to  consider  the  following  from  the  late  Bishop 
Atticus  G  Havgood,  of  the  Southern  Methodist  Church: 

“In  a  country  unorganized  and  without  government,  in¬ 
dividuals  must  punish  violations  of  natural  law;  theirs  is  no 

other  recourse.  But  this  is  not  civilization;  it  is  at  best 

% 

barbarism.  In  organized  society,  lynching  is  a  crime 
against  society.  It  is  not  a  question  of  what  the  victim  de¬ 
serves;  it  is  a  question  as  to  what  society  can  afford.  In 
organized  society  there  is  no  higher  civil  or  social  duty 
than  obedience  to  law;  the  lyncher  is,  of  all  men,  the  vio- 
later  of  law.  Lynching  is  a  crime  against  God  and  man. 
Lynchi  ng  breaks  the  law,  defies  it,  despises  it.  puts  it  to 
open  shame.  Punishment  by  government,  according  to 
law,  represents  the  judgment  )f  God;  punishment  by  lynch¬ 
ing  is  vengeance.  Legal  punishment  educates  men  into 
respect  for  law;  lynching  educates  them  into  contempt  for 
law.  Lynching  does  more  to  put  down  law  than  any  crim¬ 
inal  it  takes  in  hand;  lynching  kills  a  man;  the  lyncher  kills 
the  law  that  protects  life;  lynching  is  anarchy.” 

There  is  no  mistaking  the  meaning  of  these  words,  they 
describe  the  thought  of  all  good  men  in  the  South,  in  regard 
to  lynching.  But  we  are  trying  to  ar  rive  at  a  conclusion 
by  the  way  of  lacts.  What  are  the  facts?  Legal  punish¬ 
ment  has  been  tried,  yet  the  crime  of  rape  increased.  Shoot- 


ing  and  hanging,  without  law,  has  been  tried,  yet  the  crime 
in  creased.  Finally,  mutilation  and  fire  have  been  tried, 
and  still  the  crime  increases.  Dr.  E.  E.  Boss,  editor  of  the 
Christian  Advocate  published  at  Nashville,  Tenn  ,  in  1S93, 
in  an  editorial  article  said,  “  I  hi  ee  hundred  white  women 
have  been  raped  by  negroes  within  the  preceding  three 
months.” 

Bishop  Haygood  further  said,  “I  have  been  asked  to  ex¬ 
plain  the  burning  of  negroes,  not  the  killing  of  them  I 
give  frankly  my  opinion;  the  people  who  burned  them  were 
for  the  time  insane.”  Mr.  Walter  Page  pooh-poohs  this 
idea,  and  undertakes  to  account  for  it  by  the  “Southern 
Bully.”  I  concur  in  Bishop  Haygood’s  opinion,  and  l  wish 
to  describe  three  cases  of  lynching  of  which  I  was  eye¬ 
witness. 

I  happened  to  be  traveling  in  Texas  the  year  the  negro 
was  burned  of  whom  Bishop  Haygood  was  asked  to  give  his 
opinion  on  the  manner  of  his  death.  It  was  in  Paris,  Texas. 
The  mob  assembled  after  the  manner  of  all  mobs;  it  looked 
like  a  crowd  of  curiosity  seekers,  while  it  was  being  ascer¬ 
tained  it  the  right  man  had  been  apprehended.  When  this 
had  been  settled,  resolution  and  determination  took  posses¬ 
sion  of  the  last  man  of  them;  the  pile  was  prepared  and  the 
negro  laid  thereon;  nothing  but  death  could  have  stopped 
them;  they  were  insane.  The  crime  was  this: 

A  big,  burly  negro  had  taken  an  innocent  child,  of  a  few 
years  of  age,  and  after  trying  to  accomplish  his  purpose, 
had  literally  torn  her  limbs  apart.  In  arguing  the  cause  as 
insanity,  Bishop  Haygood  says,  “Had  the  dismembered 
form  of  his  victim  been  the  dishonored  body  of  my  baby,  I 
might  have  gone  into  an  insanity  that  might  have  ended 
never.” 

The  next  case  was  at  Nashville,  Tenn.  T wo  young  ladies 
living  with  a  widowed  mother,  in  a  small  hamlet  not  far 
from  Nashville,  had  been  outraged  and  gagged  by  a  negro 
brute,  afflicted  at  the  time  with  a  nameless  disease.  He 
was  apprehended  and  lodged  in  jail  in  the  city  of  Nashville. 
Farmers  mounted  on  every  kind  and  description  of  animals, 


came  into  the  city  in  great  numbers,  broke  into  the  jail  in 
broad  daylight,  took  the  negro  to  the  foot-bridge  spanning 
the  Cumberland  River,  and  hanged  him  thereon;  then 
stood  for  half  an  hour  and  riddled  his  body  with  bullets.  I 
was  crossing  the  riv  r  in  a  canoe  at  the  time,  and  my  atten¬ 
tion  was  attracted  by  the  shooting;  from  where  I  was,  so 
much  lead  being  wasted  on  a  man  already  dead,  looked  very 
insane. 

In  Bowling  Green,  Ky.,  some  time  between  ’94  and  ’96,  a 
beautiful  young  lady  of  that  section  had  been  outraged  by 
a  negro.  He  was  caught.  The  people  controlled  them¬ 
selves  long  enough  for  a  trial  by  law  to  begin,  when,  to 
my  utter  amazement,  two  hundred  and  fifty  men,  with  Win¬ 
chester  rifles,  marched  to  the  courthouse  at  high  noon,  and 
took  the  prisoner  from  before  the  face  of  the  Judge  and 
hanged  him  by  the  neck  until  he  was  dead.  If  you  can 
give  any  explanation  for  such  conduct,  other  than  insanity, 
I  submit  the  case. 

My  fellow-citizens,  the  exasperations  have  been  cumula¬ 
tive,  as  in  continued  doses  of  digitalis,  and  the  effect  has 
been  insanity.  As  much  as  I  condemn  lynching — and  I 
say  it  is  the  most  damnable  practice  any  civilized  man  can 
join  in — and  realizing  as  I  do  the  awful  consequences  of 
not  speaking  soberly,  in  the  fear  of  God  and  man,  on  this 
fearful  subject,  yet  I  must  say  it,  and  I  say  it  deliberately — 
the  cure  for  lynching  is  the  stopping  of  rape.  Unless 
assaults  by  negroes  on  white  women  and  little  girls  come 
to  an  end,  there  will  most  probably  be  still  further  displays 
of  vengeance  that  will  shock  the  world.  The  law  should 
take  its  course.  Provocation  cannot  set  aside  law  with 
impunity,  but  the  difficulty  contended  with  is  the  determi¬ 
nation  of  the  Southern  white  man  that  women  shall  not  be 
dragged  into  court  to  testify  in  such  cases. 

REMEDY. 

W  hen  this  government  decides  to  stop  trading  in  negro 
votes  and  takes  from  him  the  right  of  suffrage,  on  the 
ground  that  a  citizen  that  curses  his  race  with  such  crimes 


as  his,  is  unworthy  of  its  exercise,  a  step  will  be  taken 
towards  putting  an  end  to  rape,  and  the  elevation  of  the 
negro,  more  advanced  and  promising  than  all  the  essays  and 
papers  and  speeches  ever  delivered  on  the  social  and  polit¬ 
ical  status  of  the  negro  race  since  rape  began  I  say  it, 
here  and  now,  the  negro  must  be  controlled,  for  his  own 
good,  as  well  as  for  the  safety  of  society.  Bishop  Hay- 
good  said  he  remembered  to  have  heard  of  only  one  case  of 
rape  in  all  his  life,  while  the  negro  was  a  slave,  and  he  was 
burned.  His  disfranchisement  by  the  Southern  States  will 
not  affect  his  interests,  social,  business,  moral,  religious,  or 
educational. 

SOCIAL. 

Sociology  may  one  day  be  worthy  of  the  dignified  name 
of  Science,  and  may  be  able  to  point  out  the  way,  by  which, 
the  clash  between  the  classes  can  be  avoided,  but  it  will 
never  devise  a  way  of  fulfilling  the  ideas  of  many  intelli¬ 
gent  Northern  whites  regarding  the  social  position  of  the 
negro.  There  is  a  barrier,  in  the  race  itself,  that  prevents 
anything  like  an  approach  to  social  equality  in  the  South. 
Not  riding  in  the  same  railroad  coach,  stopping  at  the  same 
hotel,  going  to  the  same  school,  worshipping  in  the  same 
church,  sociology  may  point  out,  but  will  never  be  able  to 
remedy.  When  these  things  are  so,  why  dream  of  a  social 
position  for  the  negro  that  would  indicate  the  high  plane  of 
companionship  ?  The  mere  fact  that  a  Northern  man  will 
ask  the  question,  “Why  ?”  makes  a  Southern  man  despair 
of  undertaking  to  tell  him.  To  a  Southerner  it  is  like  an 
intuitive  truth,  to  be  accepted  through  its  own  power  of 
assertion  ;  to  a  Northerner  it  is  like  1  he  Gospel,  to  the  Jew 
a  stumbling  block  and  to  the  Greek  foolishness,  and  like¬ 
wise,  not  unlike  the  Gospel,  when  once  accepted  ;  bv  living 
among  the  negro  race,  it  creates  such  a  zeal  that  the 
Southern  friend  has  to  keep  the  Northern  friend  from  kill¬ 
ing  his  once  idolized  pet.  When  a  man  like  Joseph  Cook, 
can  even  hint  at  amalgamation  one  is  tempted  to  give  up 
the  task  of  presenting  the  social  side  of  life  as  it  must  be 
observed  by  the  negroes  of  the  South, 


I  wish  to  produce  the  impression  that  the  suggestion  has 
never  yet  been  made,  nor  the  plan  devised,  by  which  whites 
and  negroes  can  live  together  in  the  same  section  of  the 
South,  save  as  negroes  and  whites,  in  the  sense  that  the 
Southern  white  man  understands  these  distinctions  ;  which 
is  identically  that  of  oil  and  water,  and  as  there  is  no  law 
of  chemistry  that  can  force  these  fluids  to  be  one,  so  there 
is  no  law  of  God  or  man  that  can  force  the  white  man  of  the 
South  to  sit  down  at  the  same  table  with  the  negro  and  say 
we  are  one.  What  God  has  joined  together  let  not  man 
put  asunder  ;  the  converse  of  this  likewise  must  be  obeyed. 
What  God  has  put  asunder  let  no  man  or  government  join 
together,  for  in  the  union  is  the  death  of  the  inferior. 

If  1  have  made  myself  clear,  I  wish  now  to  state  what 
will  appear  strange  to  any  one  unfamiliar  with  Southern 
life.  While  a  Southern  man  will  not  associate  with  as  an 
equal,  nor  permit  his  family  to  admit  to  his  home  as  a 
guest,  the  most  refined,  best  educated,  wealthiest,  most 
honored  negro  on  earth,  he  will  advise  with,  give  all  the 
privacy  of  his  home  life  to,  sit  down  by  the  side  of  in  a 
railroad  coach,  let  his  children  sleep  in  the  same  room  with 
and  let  his  wife  take  with  her  into  the  finest  parlor  car,  or 
into  the  best  hotel,  any  decent  negro  woman,  provided  she 
is,  in  every  case,  considered  simply  as  a  negress  in  the 
employ  of  her  superior;  or  to  change  the  picture,  he  will 
trade  with,  sell  to,  buy  from,  employ  for  work,  or  work  for, 
any  decent  negro  man,  provided  it  is  understood  that  he 
is  a  negro  with  no  claims  of  equality  with  his  white  superior. 

Not  long  since  a  negro,  here  in  the  North,  wrote  for  one 
of  the  magazines  an  article,  in  which  he  created  a  condi¬ 
tion  of  affairs  which  he  said,  by  inference,  existed  in  the 
South,  and  located  the  scene  at  Fayetteville,  North  Caro¬ 
lina.  lie  undertook  to  show  that  prejudice  was  so  great 
against  the  negro,  that  a  young  negro  girl  who  loved  her 
foi met  mistress,  was  denied  the  privilege  of  looking  upon 
her  dead  face,  was  kept  from  the  church  at  the  time  of  her 
funeral,  and  prohibited  from  entering  the  cemetery  at  the 
time  of  her  burial,  and  so  gave  a  bunch  of  flowers  to  a  little 


dog  who  placed  them  on  the  newly-made  mound.  Doubt¬ 
less  some  tender-hearted  Northern  white  has  wept  over 
this  story,  not  stopping  to  think  how  such  a  cruel  race 
could  ever  have  so  won  the  affection  of  this  negress.  The 
editor  of  the  Presbyterian  Standard,  published  at  Charlotte, 
N.  C.,  replied  to  this  piece  of  idiocy,  by  saying:  “The  first 
funeral  preached  on  my  assuming  a  pastorate  at  Fayette¬ 
ville,  was  that  of  an  honored  negro  woman,  and  it  was 
preached  in  the  church  of  the  white  people;  the  main  body 
of  the  church  was  reserved  for  the  negroes,  while  the 
whites  occupied  the  sides  and  galleries.  The  undertaker  of 
the  town  was  a  respected  negro  and  officiated  at  the  funeral 
of  every  white  citizen,  and  entered  the  cemetery  on  all 
funeral  occasions.  This  negro  was  respected  as-  much  as 
any  white  man  living  in  the  town.” 

I  have  given  this  incident  to  illustrate  my  meaning.  If 
this  negro  undertaker  had  assumed  the  air  of  an  equal,  or, 
in  any  way,  showed  that  he  regarded  his  office  as  breaking 
down  the  social  barriers,  the  people  of  Fayetteville  would 
have  let  the  bodies  of  their  loved  ones  rot  in  the  sun  and 
have  left  their  bleached  bones  as  a  testimony  to  the  impos¬ 
sibility  af  any  such  thing  as  social  equality  between  the 
white  and  negro  races. 

To  make  the  paradox  more  apparent,  the  negro  may  be 
placed  in  the  finest  drug  store  in  the  South,  with  every 
assistant  a  negro,  and  provided  they  are  competent,  the 
finest  families  will  have  prescriptions  filled  by  them,  and 
the  most  refined  and  elegantly  dressed  ladies  will  be  served 
by  them  at  soda  founts,  and  ice  cream  tables,  provided 
they  conduct  the  business  as  negroes,  but  if  the  store  is  to 
be  run  on  the  ground  of  equality  of  race,  if  plague  was  rag¬ 
ing  and  drugs  could  be  procured  nowhere  else,  the  white 
people  of  the  South  would  die,  rather  than  receive  at  a 
negro’s  hand  the  remedy  for  death,  if  social  equality  was 
thereby  to  be  conceded.  You  say  that  is  fool-hearted;  be 
it  so,  it  is  nevertheless  true.  There  is  no  enterprise  or  busi¬ 
ness  in  the  South,  for  which  a  negro  is  competent,  that  is 
not  open  to  him,  as  a  negro.  There  is  nothing  in  the  South 


for  the  negro  but  death,  if  he  demands  it,  or  his  Northern 
white  friends  demand  it  for  him,  otherwise  than  as  the 
Southern  white  man  understands  “as  a  negro”  to  mean. 

To  put  the  case  plainer  still — a  leading  Southern  preach¬ 
er  told  me  he  was  put  to  utter  confusion,  when  a  boy,  while 
on  a  visit  to  relatives  in  New  Jersey.  He  was  Southern 
born.  A  negro,  whom  he  called  Tom,  was  servant  to  the 
family  he  was  visiting.  Proposing  to  go  fishing  one  day, 
Tom,  negro  like,  offered  to  dig  the  bait  and  row  the  boat 
for  the  privilege  of  accompanying  his  white  companion. 
Nothing  suited  a  Southern  white  boy  better  than  this,  and 
an  agreement  was  quickly  reached.  When  they  returned 
from  fishing,  where  they  had  both  sat  on  the  same  log,  ate 
out  of  the  same  lunch  basket,  smoked  the  same  pipe,  to  his 
utter  amazement  his  relatives  upbraided  him  for  going  fish¬ 
ing  with  a  servant.  When  the  boy  recalled,  that  against 
his  training  and  will,  he  had  been  compelled  to  attend 
church  and  sit  together  in  the  same  Sunday-school  class 
with  t li is  negro,  the  censure  for  going  fishing  with  him  pro¬ 
duced  such  a  mental  impression  that  to  this  day,  though 
advancing  in  life,  he  has  never  recovered  from  it.  The  fact 
is,  the  conditions  were  so  completely  reversed  that  his  boy¬ 
ish  mind  could  not  take  it  in.  We  in  the  South  will  do 
anything  to  help  negroes  as  negroes,  but  if  they  arrogate 
to  themselves  equality  of  race,  that  moment  life  is  jeopar¬ 
dized.  Th  ere  is  a  boundary  beyond  which  he  cannot  pass. 

EDUCATION. 

I  have  often  been  asked  by  intelligent  Northern  white 
men  :  “Does  education  benefit  the  negro.”  To  which  I 
give  two  answers.  7'he  first  is  alter  the  manner  of  reply 
made  by  preachers,  when  asked  if  education  helps  a  bad 
man  ;  to  which  they  reply,  especially  if  they  happen  to  be 
arguing  for  a  church  school,  that  without  religion  it  ena¬ 
bles  him  to  be  a  more  effective  bad  man.  Education 
undoubtedly  strengthens  the  mental  faculties  of  negroes  as 
well  as  of  whites.  But  you  will  observe  that  the  question 
is  one  of  benefit ;  in  its  answer  we  must  be^  guided  by  his 


circumstances.  The  only  thing  gotten  from  the  present 
system  of  negro  schools,  that  sticks  to  the  pupil  through¬ 
out  life,  is  an  intense  hatred  for  the  white  race,  and  false 
ideals  of  life.  This  is  due  to  having  negro  teachers.  Con¬ 
sidering  that  the  present  generation  of  younger  whites 
have  little  of  that  love  and  affection  for  the  negro  which 
marked  the  older  generations,  education  is  not  beneficial, 
under  these  conditions,  if  both  races  are  to  dwell  together. 

The  other  answer  is  :  If  the  younger  negroes  will  take 
their  places  in  a  school  distinctively  for  negroes,  save  only 
that  they  shall  be  directed  by  white  talent,  and  the  negro 
will  lay  aside  all  ideas  of  education  being  able  to  pull  down 
the  barriers  between  him  and  his  white  teacher,  then  edu¬ 
cation  will  broaden  and  elevate  the  negro  to  a  fitness  for 
citizenship  and  suffrage.  The  Southern  white  who  does 
not  admit  this  latter,  is  blinded  by  prejudice,  and  the  North¬ 
ern  white  who  undertakes  to  contradict  the  former,  either 
does  not,  or  will  not,  understand  the  situation.  The  negro’s 
lack  of  virtue,  of  honesty,  of  filial  affection,  of  cleanliness, 
and  likewise  his  tendency  to  revert  to  savagery,  his  lack  of 
self-control,  when  fired  by  passion  that  leads  to  such  death¬ 
invoking  deeds  as  rape,  have  been,  and  will  still  be,  affected 
by  education  when  wisely  directed.  No  money  is  wasted 
when  spent  by  the  State  or  the  Nation  for  the  better  edu¬ 
cation  of  the  negro  race. 

ECCLESIASTICAL  STATUS. 

It  would  seem  that  here,  if  nowhere  else,  with  the  decla¬ 
ration  “that  of  one  blood  God  has  made  all  peoples  that 
dwell  upon  the  face  of  the  earth,’’  and  that  “with  Him  there 
is  no  respect  of  persons,”  the  Southern  white  man  would 
sit  down  by  the  side  of  his  brother  in  black  as  an  equal  in 
every  respect;  but  it  is  a  fact  that  he  will  not — and  the  fact 
is  what  we  wish  explained-— the  Southern  white  distin¬ 
guishes  between  the  rights  of  a  soul  and  the  rights  of  a 
citizen.  He  knows  that  in  God’s  sight  a  negro’s  soul  is  as 
good  as  his,  that  none  of  the  benefits  of  grace  which  accrue 
to  him  may  not  likewise  accrue  to  the  negro;  but  he  knows 
on  the  other  hand,  it  is  not  a  violation  of  any  New  lesta- 


ment  principle  for  him  to  recognize,  in  his  worship,  those 
distinctions  of  race,  which  God  lias  made,  and  the  observ¬ 
ance  of  which  is  for  the  interest  of  good  order,  good  gov¬ 
ernment,  the  good  of  the  negro  and  the  safety  of  the  body 
politic.  If  suffrage  had  not  created  such  a  relationship 
between  the  races,  as  it  has,  involving  the  social  status  of 
the  white  race,  the  old  custom  of  parts  of  churches,  for 
whites,  being  set  aside  for  negroes,  where,  under  the  same 
preaching,  they  might  worship  God  and  join  in  communion 
at  a  common  table,  spread  for  a  sin-cursed  earth,  might 
still  prevail;  but  there  will  never  be  a  church,  in  the  South, 
of  any  denomination,  that  will  allow  negroes  in  its  courts 
or  within  its  walls  as  equals  so  long  as  the  race  question  is 
involved.  I  give  you  the  fact — ecclesiastics  may  argue  it  in 
what  manner  and  in  what  way  they  please.  But  in  the 
vernacular  of  Sam  Jones,  “When  you  meet  a  fact  in  the 
middle  of  the  road,  you  might  as  well  hitch  your  horse,  get 

down  and  take  out  vour  lunch  ” 

* 

My  friends,  we  might  as  well  face  the  condition  :  It  is 
not  in  the  power  of  refinement,  education,  wealth,  honor  or 
title  to  break  down  the  barrier  between  the  negro  and 
white  races  in  the  South.  The  measure  that  undertakes  so 
to  do  is  incapable  of  being  carried  out  by  the  strongest 
government  on  earth. 

I  wish  to  say,  the  proposed  methods  of  dealing  with  the 
franchise  in  the  South  will  in  no  way  be  detrimental  to 
the  negro;  his  very  best  interest  will  be  conserved  thereby; 
and  we  who  know  the  conditions,  tell  you,  in  the  fear  of 
God  and  man,  that  we  believe  a  few  years  of  trial  will 
convince  the  negro  of  the  good  of  the  measure,  and  con¬ 
vince  the  world  of  the  righteousness  of  the  act. 

The  city  of  the  South  in  which  I  live,  contains  about 
30,000  people.  It  is  the  capital  of  Mecklenburg  county, 
and  the  total  population  of  the  county  is  about  65,000.  Of 
this  population,  about  two-fifths  are  colored.  The  city  is 
one  of  considerable  activity,  and  in  its  population  it  counts 
many  Northern  men,  who  are  respected  and  influential  in 
the  community. 


In  the  suburbs  of  this  city  is  located  Biddle  University,  a 
large  and  flourishing  Presbyterian  College  and  Seminary 
for  the  colored  race,  in  which  colored  men  largely  are 
teachers.  This  Institution  is  supported  by  the  General 
Assembly  of  the  Northern  Presbyterian  Church.  There 
the  colored  folk  are  contented,  happy  and  prosperous. 

In  the  government  of  this  c i 1 3^ ,  the  colored  men  take  no 
part.  We  have  not  now,  nor  have  we  had  for  many  years, 
any  policeman  or  other  officers  connected  with  the  city 
government  except  of  the  white  race. 

In  the  government  of  the  county  no  colored  man  takes 
any  part  whatever.  He  does  not  sit  on  the  jury,  and  mem¬ 
bers  of  his  race,  when  charged  with  criminal  offenses,  are 
tried  by  a  jury  of  the  white  race;  and,  if  the  property  rights 
of  any  colored  man  are  in  jeopardy,  men  of  the  white  race 
exclusively  determine  what  his  rights  are. 

In  this  city  and  count)",  where  the  government,  by  tacit 
consent,  has  assumed  this  phase,  colored  men  being  ex¬ 
cluded  from  any  participation  therein,  the  rights  of  the 
colored  man  have,  as  I  have  been  informed,  always  been, 
and  are  now,  most  safely  guarded.  His  rights  of  property; 
his  rights  of  person;  the  safety  of  his  family,  the  sanctity 
of  his  home  are  as  well  protected  in  that  county  and  in  that 
city,  as  the  rights,  property  and  home  of  any  white  citizen. 
The  colored  man  is  there  the  absolute  equal  of  the  white 
man  before  the  law.  He  is  not  his  equal  socially.  He  is 
not  allowed  the  hope  to  be  his  equal  socially.  He  has 
learned  that  neither  the  Southern  man  nor  the  Northern 
man,  who  has  come  to  dwell  amongst  us,  desires  or  will 
permit  his  domination  in  an>"  governmental  affairs,  but  he 
knows  well  that  his  rights  are  safe  in  every  particular,  and 
he  is  never  discontented  and  never  disturbed  except  when 
bad  men,  for  their  own  selfish  purposes,  work  upon  his 
prejudices  and  ignorance,  and  either  buy  his  vote  for  money, 
or  else  excite  his  passions  and  his  fears  by  falsehood,  in  the 
hope  that,  with  the  assistance  of  the  ignorant  colored  vote, 
men  who  could  not  otherwise  hope  to  gain  office  may 


succeed,  by  such  means,  in  accomplishing  their  wicked 
purposes. 

If  any  man  in  this  audience  desires  to  know  how  white 
men  and  colored  men  live  together  in  peace  and  amity 
under  these  circumstances,  I  invite  him  to  come  to  the 
community  where  I  live,  and  I  will  introduce  him  to  men 
who,  but  a  few  years  ago,  were  ignorant  of  the  Southern 
ways  and  Southern  ideas  upon  this  subject,  but  who  have 
learned,  by  close  contact  with  our  people,  that  we  are  not 
only  merciful  and  kind  to  the  black  man,  but  that  we  are, 
what  is  better  for  him  and  for  us,  absolutely  just  towards 
him  and  his. 

The  white  men  of  the  South  say  to  the  colored  race,  in 
all  kindness,  “You  shall  not  govern  us,”  and,  in  the  same 
breath,  they  say  to  that  race,  “Our  government  of  you  shall 
be  kindly  and  just.” 

In  the  Hawaiian  policy,  already  adopted  by  the  govern¬ 
ment,  there  has  been  a  refusal  to  extend  the  franchise  on 
account  of  race.  The  color  line,  in  this  instance,  has  been 
the  governing  principle,  and  a  line  has  been  drawn  at  blacks, 
browns  and  yellows.  This  measure  is  eminently  wise  and 
will  save  the  government  great  trouble  in  future. 

The  silence  of  the  Republican  party  on  the  Porto  Rico 
and  the  Philippine  question,  as  forecast  in  the  platform  in¬ 
dicated  by  Mr.  Hanna,  is  very  significant.  Its  significance 
will  save  both  the  party  and  the  government  a  criticism  of 
inconsistency. 

The  expansion  plank  in  the  Massachusetts  platform  is 
worthy  of  study  by  those  who  like  to  observe  a  high  politi¬ 
cal  somersault.  It  has  taken  the  Republican  party  35  years 
to  make  the  turn,  but  here  it  is,  down  on  both  feet  with  its 
face  where  the  back  of  its  head  was. 

“  By  the  Treaty  of  Paris,  a  number  of  islands  formerly  held  by  Spain 
have  come  under  the  dominion  of  the  United  States,  and  by  the  terms  of 
the  treaty  the  duty  of  providing  for  their  government  and  of  determin¬ 
ing  the  civil  rights  and  political  status  of  their  inhabitants  has  devolved 
upon  the  Congress  of  the  United  States.  As  a  result  of  these  acquisi¬ 
tions,  races  of  people  have  come  under  the  protection  of  the  American 
flag  who  have  been  so  long  degraded  by  tyranny  as  to  have  very  inade- 


qnate  conceptions  of  the  true  spirit  of  liberty  and  of  the  responsibilities 
of  self-government,  and  who  have  been  so  impoverished  and  weakened 
by  the  exploitations  of  their  oppressors  as  to  be  unable  to  defend  them¬ 
selves,  unaided,  from  the  greed  of  foreign  conquest. 

“  No  greater  trust  than  the  uplifting  and  educating  of  these  defence¬ 
less  people  has  ever  been  imposed  upon  the  United  States.  The  Repub¬ 
lican  party  believes  it  to  be  the  high  and  solemn  duty  of  the  nation  to 
accept  and  execute  this  trust,  with  all  the  responsibilities  it  involves,  by 
retaining  the  islands,  and  by  providing  for  their  adequate  government 
upon  the  principles  of  liberty  and  humanity.  It  believes  that  to  abandon 
them  to  local  anarchy  or  to  th  j  lust  of  the  invader  would  be  cowardly 
and  dishonorable,  and  a  betrayal  of  its  trust,  impossible  to  be  contem¬ 
plated  by  a  great,  free  and  enlightened  nation.” 

The  measure  proposed  would  be  admirably  suited  to  meet 
the  requirements  of  all  wants  in  the  Union.  The  South,  in 
the  effort  now  beine  made  in  the  attempt  to  amend  the  sev¬ 
eral  constitutions  of  the  States,  looks  to  no  better  attain¬ 
ment  for  that  section  than  this  paragraph  from  the  above 
forecast  of  the  Republican  platform. 

It  is  a  curious  fact  that  in  the  government’s  effort  to  alle¬ 
viate  human  suffering,  in  the  only  war  in  the  history  of  the 
world  which  was  fought  solely  for  the  relief  of  the  op¬ 
pressed,  it  has  hit  upon  a  difficulty,  the  solution  of  which 
brings  to  the  front  the  mistakes  made  by  the  Republican 
party  35  years  ago.  Whether  we  will  or  not,  the  race 
question  in  this  country  has  assumed  such  proportions  that 
it  will  not  down.  It  would  be  very  embarrassing  to  the 
Chief  Executive  and  to  the  Federal  Government  to  have 
the  Constitution  of  these  United  States  guaranteeing  cer¬ 
tain  rights  to,  and  keeping  certain  privileges  from,  those  ot 
her  citizens  dwelling  in  the  isles  of  the  sea  and  yet  under 
the  protection  of  the  American  flag,  and  at  the 
sume  time  having  in  her  very  bosom  all  rights  guaranteed 
to,  and  no  privileges  excluded  from,  the  race,  in  many  par¬ 
ticulars,  more  vicious  and  as  incompetent  for  the  exercise 
of  the  franchise  as  the  brown  and  yellow-skins  of  the  Haw¬ 
aiian  group. 

In  concluding  the  discussion  on  this  great  subject,  we  are 
confronted  by  a  fact;  and  that  fact  is  the  citizens  of  one 
part  of  this  Union  ask  you  to  deal  as  fairly  and  as  sincerely 


by  them,  as  the  whole  Union  is  dealt  with,  when  you  con¬ 
sider  the  inabilities  of  the  citizens  in  newly  acquired  terri¬ 
tory. 

The  old  question  when  Mexico  and  Upper  California  were 
admitted  to  the  Union,  is  now  before  us.  That  question  was: 
“Shall  the  new  territory  be  free  or  slave  soil?  The  ques¬ 
tion  now  is  changed  only  to  this  extent:  “Shall  all  of  the 
new  citizents  have  the  right  of  franchise,  or  only  those  com¬ 
petent  to  use  it?”  The  government  has  answered,  on  the 
ground  of  expediency,  that  the  franchise  shall  not  be  ex¬ 
tended  to  those  incompetent  for  its  intelligent  exercise. 
We  ask  for  nothing  more.  Either  way,  if  the  government 
is  to  be  consistent,  the  15th  Amendment  of  the  Federal 
Constitution  must  be  stricken  from  that  document.  If  this 
shall  be  done  friction  is  at  an  end,  and  the  negro  race  may 
eventually  give  to  this  country  a  sturdy,  intelligent  citizen. 

Charlotte,  N.  C. 


■ 

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* 


